Army Veteran Ray Rodriguez Hires Me To Inspect His Flipped House! (Pre Inspection Interview)

1st Time Home Buyer and Army Veteran  Sergeant First Class Ramiro Rodriguez (Aka Ray), United States Army Retired. Hires Me To Inspect His 1st House! This podcast episode is the Pre Inspection Interview!

I know Ray from the Jiu Jitsu academy https://www.subconsciousbjj.com/ in North Hollywood California. Check it out if you live in the area.

Ray has been commenting on my youtube videos for several months and hinting that he was looking for a house for him and his wife.

Well, he finally found a house he likes and he contacted me to inspect it. I soon learned it was a flipped home so i invited Ray to be a guest on the podcast to discuss his concerns before i perform the home inspection for him. Ray had some great questions which helped set some realistic expectations about what i might find in his flipped home built in 1966 (same year i was built) LOL.

This podcast is part one with Ray, he will be back soon to discuss his experience with me, the inspection, Inspection report and how he feels about my findings. Will my report and recommendations on this flipped home be bad or good? Will Ray run away from this flipped house? Stay Tuned!!

Below are links that Ray wanted to share with any veterans looking to purchase a home. Ray said the VA Loan process was a good experience overall and highly recommends looking into it.

Thank You All For Your Service

https://www.veteransunited.com/va-loans/

https://www.veteransunited.com/lo/cj-bommarito/

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John Laforme
Certified CREIA Inspector Member #0155263
Home Inspection Authority LLC

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Transcript

John Laforme: 0:00

Buying a home. Don't panic. Just listen to the rest of this podcast Alright everybody, welcome back to another episode of Home Inspection authority Straight Talk podcast with me, John laforme. I'm a CREIA certified home inspector from Los Angeles, California. And the topics we discuss on this podcast are about buying homes, selling homes, inspecting homes. So if you're a home inspector, home buyer, real estate professional, this podcast is definitely for you. So let's get into some straight talk about home inspections. All right, I'm sitting here with Ray Rodriguez. Let's have everybody you look like a sports guy. Thanks. Yeah. Like maybe you're on a baseball team or you know, maybe a hockey player. Yeah, he's a jujitsu guy.

Ray Rodriguez: 0:56

Tried to be. So tell me what's going on? Ray. I'm in the process of purchasing my first home. Yes, yeah. And that is why you are here. That's why I'm here. I want to say thank you. Because, you know, I noticed you've been following me on YouTube and stuff like that, and my social media stuff. And you seem to like what I've been posting, which is cool. And then

John Laforme: 1:19

yesterday, I saw that you left a comment on the YouTube channel saying, Hey, I'm having this guy inspect my house. Oh, yeah, for sure. Then I was like, oh, shoot, I better get on that. And then I got a text message from you. Yeah. And then I was like, hey, you know what, you should come on the podcast. And let's talk about what what's going on in your life leading up to this because I have you scheduled for tomorrow morning. So I'm going to be inspecting your your house tomorrow, which is a flip. So tell me about how you got here. And how long it took you to get here. Wow,

Ray Rodriguez: 1:53

how far how far back? Do you want to go?

John Laforme: 1:55

Whatever you want. It's up to you, man.

Ray Rodriguez: 1:57

25 years ago, now play? Let's see. So I just retired from the Army. I was lucky to get stationed here in Los Angeles as a recruiter. So I retired out here. And so now I'm here in LA to stay and a wife and I've been saving money for a while to try to you know, afford a house. And so you're still

John Laforme: 2:16

a recruiter. No, I'm

Ray Rodriguez: 2:17

retired. Oh, totally retired. Okay. I'm a retired Army. So yeah, we're, you know, now that were established in Los Angeles, we finally can set some roots and where because we're always leaving, like every three to four years. Germany, South Korea and in Los Angeles. And then, but now that I'm fully retired, utilizing the VA loan to to purchase my first house, you know, so that's kind of like it's been a rough day. Like today's been today's been was the first day that I entered escrow. Right. Yeah,

John Laforme: 2:47

you had to postpone our little get together because you had to run to the bank. Exactly. This

Ray Rodriguez: 2:51

my first escrow ever. Okay, right. So it's very, like, you know, I was juggling work juggling my wife, not literally, but you know, juggling work and my wife, and the loan officer like everything all in one day. And it's it was pretty hectic. But, you know, we made a deposit today for the start the process, so I'm just, you know, got my inspections tomorrow, which I can't wait for. I can't wait to see what you find. Because we were watching some of your videos last night. I was like, Look, see? That's the stuff they don't show us. Right, those three exhausts the three exhausts in the attics that you were taught. Oh, you want you want you must have watched the attic nightmare video? Yeah. Yeah, I can't believe that, that all that gas are just sitting up there in the attic. Like that's, yeah, that's crazy. That's actually a pretty common thing to find. You know, some, some flippers do a pretty decent job. Most don't.

John Laforme: 3:44

So, it's really a toss up. There really is no, no, maybe you just got to go through the process and look, you know, as home inspectors know where to look. I I've been doing flipped houses for so long. It's like I consider myself a pro at it because I know exactly what to go for. Yeah, I see what you know what's going to be important. Understand that. It's all to me, it's all about setting expectations. And the one thing that I find that most buyers run into is that they're not prepped properly by the realtors. Okay. So for example, if you don't know any better, which you may not right now, you may be just looking for a house that fits the size you need and the city you need. And that's all you're thinking of so you're not really thinking about the age of the house when was a built because the one you're looking at looks brand new because it's all been remodeled. So you're like you like everybody else. We're all just you know, wow, we see all these shiny appliances and new windows bells and whistles, bells and whistles, all the cosmetics. Basically, you're walking through going down new countertops, who doesn't love a new countertop? I mean, I do you know, new bathrooms, new everything. So you're caught Got up on that? And then it's like, wow, okay, so that's great. And there's nothing wrong with that. But if you're not, if you're not prepared properly by your representative saying, hey, you know what, this is a flip. It's gonna look pretty. But we got to look at the major systems. So that's, that's what you want to really pay attention to. The cosmetics are just that they're just cosmetic, you can paint if you don't like the color of the walls, you just paint them a different color. If you don't like the countertops, well you just change them. That doesn't mean it's wrong. It's it doesn't mean it's right or wrong, you know, that kind of thing. So this house in particular has is going to be special to me. Let me tell you why. Why. It's the same age as me. Oh, really? Yeah. This night is built in 1966. Wow. Yep. So 1966 was a great year. Yeah. Because I was produced. You can compare

Ray Rodriguez: 5:53

the, the frame of the house to your frame. Longevity there.

John Laforme: 5:58

Yeah, there you go. We could do something like that. Absolutely. So I want to let everybody know how we know each other. Cool. Yeah. We know each other from subconscious, subconscious. BJJ. Yep. My friend Brent burnaston in North Hollywood. And I met you there when I was doing the boy tie classes with Corona. moit. Roy Corona, Moita. Yeah, with Roy. Yeah. And it's funny because what sucks is I literally relocated to Burbank, from from La Crescenta. Oh, wow. Because I was always over here. You know, my guitar schools over here. The training I love to go to was over here. Where you got well, it was in North Hollywood. So it's right next door. Yeah, literally a five minute drive. So I moved over here and then COVID hit, literally after I moved in here. COVID hit and then bam. Everything got shut down. And that was rough. Roy moved. Ventura. Yeah. And I'm like, Oh, shit. So it was like, I was really good. I was really getting the hang of his classes really getting in there. And it was

Ray Rodriguez: 7:01

it was like it was classes at that time. Were like, really good. There was a lot of boy Ty lotta jujitsu going on. Yeah, the school was growing. And then boom. Yeah. You know, but yeah, still there, which is great. And it's bigger now.

John Laforme: 7:13

Yeah. Yeah. Everybody seems to have you know, gotten past that. So I'm glad that's over with a nightmare. That was

Ray Rodriguez: 7:18

thanks for for, for sticking in there for us. You know? Yeah. Because that's our home, you know? Yeah. But it's a lot of our home. So

John Laforme: 7:24

yeah, absolutely. So, you know, brands had great instructor magic, we're lucky guy to learn from Patterson has a lot of you know, I've been to many places and train at many different places with many different people. And there's a there's not a lot that are great. That brands are really good at well. Yeah, it's it's really good. And he's really passionate about it. Yep. So So what's your rank now?

Ray Rodriguez: 7:47

Oh, I'm a retired ie seven star in first class.

John Laforme: 7:50

I met MGg Oh, sorry. We'll get to that okay, no,

Ray Rodriguez: 7:53

sorry. I'm a purple belt.

John Laforme: 7:56

I'm mid level pay that's all you need right there buddy.

Ray Rodriguez: 7:59

I'm so stuck in the army ways you said rank I went straight to golly sorry. Sorry everybody listening.

John Laforme: 8:05

No, it's all good flashback that no purple Hey, per i honestly a purple belt was the only belt I was ever really trying to get that's that was my that was my that's all I can ever remember was really thriving to get that purple because I could because training with purples you could see what they know. And you just get your ass whooped. When you're new, you know you just get whooped you just like what the hell happened? Yeah. It's like a tornado just grabbed you and elected.

Ray Rodriguez: 8:34

Yes. Very, very educational. I remember. Oh, my.

John Laforme: 8:38

Isn't a humbling right. Yeah, blink. So anyway, being a purple belt is you've made it. I mean, that's a branch not going to give you a purple belt. Oh, no. If you didn't earn it, first of all, he doesn't give out anything like that. But that when I arrived at that, I felt good. I was like, okay, you know what, I think I've taken this pretty far. And now I can deal with most Yeah, of course. I'm still getting tapped by upper belts and ultra mentioned every day. Yeah. Every day. Some clever dudes out there. Oh, yeah. And, but no, that was a blast. I when I when I retired from jujitsu. I was a dark dark brown. Oh, okay. Well, you know, I wasn't a black belt. I was like, I like one or two stripes away from being a black.

Ray Rodriguez: 9:22

So when I come back, when is the I don't know, man, come back.

John Laforme: 9:25

I you know, I always listen to my body Drew and I was starting to get too many injuries. And I was spending so much money on therapy. Oh, massages, chiropractor appointments, trying to straighten out my shoulder, my arm. I mean, I actually had a rotator tear years ago.

Ray Rodriguez: 9:43

I think I had one too. When I was in the army, because I found it last year. I had like a ball of calcium. And my foot my shoulder tendon like that big right? Because I started getting pain. I think I tore it when I was in the army. I didn't know it. Oh, yeah, I had shoulder pain like 2015 I think? Yeah, they could come gradually and then Neck it really started hurting. I think it healed inside of it but it calcified or you didn't have to do surgery. No. They said I did. They said like nine months recovery or something like that. I'm right now I'm good. I did

John Laforme: 10:09

a surgery, I went to one of the top surgeons in LA and he said, Do you want to still want to be an athlete? I said, Absolutely. I'm not sitting on the couch getting fell. And so he goes, You gotta do a surgery. If not, don't worry about it. It just yeah, you just be a little weaker. That's and now I gotta get an I went through the whole thing. And I was out for eight months. I went back rolling with one arm. Yeah.

Ray Rodriguez: 10:30

I just I mean, it's that hasn't got to the point where I need to surgery. You know, it's manageable. It's fine. I need but see, you said you listen to your body. Same here. Yeah. My, my, my heart is bigger than my brain. And I can't quit. You know, even though I'm 40 I'm 41.

John Laforme: 10:45

And I'm so old.

Ray Rodriguez: 10:46

I know. No, I mean,

John Laforme: 10:48

you're retired at 41. That's amazing.

Ray Rodriguez: 10:50

I'm working now. Again. Okay. But I mean, like, you know, like my, like I said, my heart is bigger than my brain. And I have a, I have a really bad back problem. I have four herniated bulging discs in my back. Oh, she's trying to get five. No, I'm not, but I'm not and that's why I listen to my myself now. And I'm, I'm stopping myself and I'm say, Hey, Ray, you need to take a step back because you go into court. Yep. You know, cuz my body gets crooked. It's contorted. I can't control it. It gets locked that way. So whenever my body feels like the disc is healed, and then the muscles were released, and they go back to normal, right, it's crazy. Right? So now listen to myself. Like you said,

John Laforme: 11:26

Yeah, trust me. I you know, when I was really into it, I was I lived sleep breathe. Just jujitsu constantly. I was there constantly. I was really into it. And it was really hard for me to stop. It's hard. I like I'll be in Muay Thai sometimes, and I'll see people talking about did you did Hey, John, do you want? I'm just like, or, as I would love to go out. I love the grind. I love the wrestling aspect of it.

Ray Rodriguez: 11:53

My community, the communities like the other part, all my best friends are jitsu related.

John Laforme: 11:58

Yeah, no, you're right. You're right. That is something I also Yes, yes.

Ray Rodriguez: 12:01

And I wouldn't have any friends in LA if it wasn't for jujitsu. That's a good point. I promise. That's a

John Laforme: 12:05

good point. Yep. That's actually how I met Brent. See, 20 years ago, over 20 years ago. Yeah, that John Jacques Machado.

Ray Rodriguez: 12:12

I see those pictures of him on Facebook sometimes like that's Britt. Yeah. You know, he wants out here. Yeah, here. He was, like really? Like skinnier. Yeah. And young. Like he's like, probably like, yeah, 25 Yeah. 28. Yeah, that's me. A brain if you're listening. You were young at one point, he'll be listening.

John Laforme: 12:31

Now we're just getting older Brent Sorry, buddy. to happen to all of us, dude. Even this even the retire guy over here. So anyway. Okay, so you just had a hectic day with your, with your escrow and, and all that. So how long have you will be looking for a house? I mean, a year, two years?

Ray Rodriguez: 12:51

This is I don't know if this is normal or not. But for about five weeks.

John Laforme: 12:57

That's not bad. Yeah.

Ray Rodriguez: 12:58

I mean, we got

John Laforme: 12:59

literally just started looking.

Ray Rodriguez: 13:01

I would say like the beginning of August.

John Laforme: 13:02

That's how you mentioned that text message to me about a couple of weeks ago. I remember that

Ray Rodriguez: 13:06

end of July, probably in July, we started looking. Wow. Yeah.

John Laforme: 13:10

So were you were you specific to Okay, I gotta be in this city, this area, or I have to have this size house. What was your

Ray Rodriguez: 13:17

it changed? It changed? Well, it was LA. But it was like this part of La because my wife has a business. And we're always downtown LA getting supplies and stuff. And that's like a 20 minute drive where I'm at but School, which is by like universal, like 20 to 2520 minute drive. So we wanted to keep that because we're

John Laforme: 13:35

always bring the mic closer, okay, because we're good to go. You can lean back, just bring it to you.

Ray Rodriguez: 13:40

Because we're always going downtown. We basically lived downtown, you know, we work in there all the time. So it had to be an easy commute. But originally, we started looking for townhouses with like, certain type of designs that can sustain a business inside of it, you know, like that would that we do? But then we we figured I know there's HOAs and this and that, but then that the HOA whenever you total it, it's a lot of money, which you can throw down on a house instead, it all ends up the same in the end. So we just figured that and we just did that. Now we're we find a house in North Hollywood. Yeah, and it's not that far from the downtown.

John Laforme: 14:20

Do you know why HOAs exist?

Ray Rodriguez: 14:24

I want to say just is it because everyone lives in the cert in a in a in a close community? They can all pitch in to help fix things.

John Laforme: 14:32

No break was that it's so you can't paint your house pink.

Ray Rodriguez: 14:36

Oh, wow. Okay.

John Laforme: 14:39

Well, that's basically what they do is they control what you do on the outside. When you get your own house like you're about to have, you can paint a pink if you want, or you can paint it blue and pink or green and whatever you want to do.

Ray Rodriguez: 14:51

Let us know we can paint it. That's the beauty. Yeah, that's cool. I mean, I'd rather not have

John Laforme: 14:55

that I think Yeah. HOAs are cool. Yeah, if they're a four Double HOA dues. Now some I own condos and I've lived in condos and I'm currently renting a townhome which is basically the same thing as HOA rules here but doesn't apply to me really because I'm just a renter. Okay, gotcha. I don't have to pay no HOA here. Cool. But they got a pool here. Yeah. I mean, that's, that's something that worth paying for. Because if you put a pool in your backyard, that's expensive. Yeah, to put it in for one to maintaining. It's not cheap either. Yeah. So don't get it permitted to if you're going to buy anybody out there looking to buy a condo, make sure they got a pool. So you have you'll feel good about paying that HOA fee. Well, what else you're gonna pay for the air outside. They're gonna wash your windows outside. I mean, there's some ridiculous HOA dues out there. And I've seen some, like I've walked on the properties to inspect them like so what's the HOA do for they're not they're outside hasn't been touched in

Ray Rodriguez: 15:54

30 years now. What's the highest you've seen as far as HOA?

John Laforme: 15:57

$600 600 bucks? Yeah, that's a lot. Yeah, years ago, I had a I had a one acre lot. And a 4300 square foot house with inside of a private community. I was only paying 245 For HOA. Yeah, yes, it has security guards, and the only one that was worth paying for. We have a pool. I did have a pool you go. But that was my kids and a pool, but it was mine. But anyway, so. Okay, so you've been looking for five weeks, and you found what you wanted. So the day did you have to go through a major battle to get your offer accepted?

Ray Rodriguez: 16:32

This time? No, not really. The first time, the first few times we did because we're using a VA loan, because I'm a veteran. So we're using that because there's no down payment, you have to You're required to pay, you do have to pay a funding fee at the end. But if you're more than 10% disabled from the military, you don't have to pay it. I think it's don't quote me on that either. It's 10 or 30%. Okay. And that's a big difference. But yeah, like that. I don't remember exactly what it was, but I don't have to pay that fee. So we're using that in plus, we don't have to fork over 3% for down payment. You know, so that's awesome. Yeah. So we use that. But I didn't know this until we put down our first offer ever in you know, and people kind of discriminated against VA Home Loans For some reason? I don't know. I guess it's because the appraisal or whatever, but they shut us down because we were they didn't want to take off because we had a VA loan. But this was for townhomes.

John Laforme: 17:26

Right. Yeah. Maybe it's a little more complicated for them as far as getting it all approved. So you know, look, these relatives are just looking for a quick action. I wouldn't take it personally, that they're just looking to get something done quick. And as your VA loan comes up, I'm not that familiar with VA loan, so I can't comment for sure. But I would say that maybe there's an extra steps they have to go through to make sure and get it maybe I don't think so. I don't know. I don't know. So I'm just saying I'm just guessing.

Ray Rodriguez: 17:52

But we'll see. I mean, that that I mean, that happened. But that doesn't happen for houses only for townhomes and condos. So when we when we found this house, this was a third house that we put an offer on and we got it

John Laforme: 18:03

Oh, it was only happening for the condos,

Ray Rodriguez: 18:05

only the condos and oh god. I forgot what the reason was. But later on during the during this, I'll try to remember it right and bring it up. But yeah, this was a pretty easy process, obviously, so far, right?

John Laforme: 18:19

But I'm just so what's your experience with a house? Have you ever worked on houses? Have you ever been a plumber? Electrician? Handyman? Have you ever done that stuff?

Ray Rodriguez: 18:28

Kind of when I lived like at my mom's house? You know, my dad and I fix stuff around the house every now and then.

John Laforme: 18:34

Where are you from? Originally? Houston, Texas. Okay. Yeah. Cool. So let's talk about flipped houses. Now. Let's do it. And so flipped houses, like I mentioned a little earlier, you know, it's a hit or miss that can be done really well. It can be done. 80% Well, that can be done 50% Well, or over that could be just really bad. So give you an idea today. I just did one. Okay, I did a flip today. And it was built in 1906. Wow. So that's a lot different than what you're about to look at. Wow, that's all a lot different. So I don't expect to see some of the things I found today in your house that I'm going to look at tomorrow. Okay, so, so 1906 The first thing that comes into my head is a brick foundation

Ray Rodriguez: 19:19

and plumbing. What's that? Like? They didn't really originally have plumbing in those houses, right?

John Laforme: 19:24

Yeah. Oh, yeah. Yeah, didn't right now. They did. Oh, they did. Yeah, they did. But the first thing that came to my mind was a brick Foundation. And my termite guy showed up and his name's Dave. You're going to be seeing him tomorrow. And I said so Dave? What's the first thing is missing here at this house? And he was looks at it goes I don't know what I said. There's no event screens on the bottom. Yeah. The res Foundation has no vent screens. There was only the access to get in and that was it. I was like I didn't good. I knew right away what that was and I knew it was brick foundation. So they recycled the whole house. House was built in 1906 with citing they stuck all over the bits. No, they just removed them. Oh, wow. Or, or they were just never there.

Ray Rodriguez: 20:08

I'll let you so they stuck it over everything.

John Laforme: 20:09

Yeah, so it had wood, wood siding on it. And they literally went over it with stucco but I gotta be honest, the stucco job looks really good. Oh, I was impressed. I was like, Wow, look how clean this thing looks. Yeah, this is 1906 The house is not cricket. I mean, it's the floors were all pretty much level I was I was impressed. But nevertheless, it was a brick Foundation. And only only a couple sections of it were were damaged. So then I'm looking at the floor supports. And of course, those are also sitting on Breck from 1906 Well, it's kind of cool to be able to see stuff like that, that old, you know, it's like, well, it's still standing, still holding up. But on on the property you're looking at, it's built in 1966 Okay, so you're going to have a poured concrete foundation, there's no there's no worry about a brick foundation with what I'm looking at for you to look at. So that's just going to be erased on walls probably going to be posted piers, it could be could have foundations, around the perimeter. I'm sorry, concrete around the perimeter and in the middle. So you get floor drains going from the outside to the middle from the middle to the middle and then out. So you could have different scenarios like that. So I'm not expecting a problem there with your house tomorrow. The only thing that I would anticipate with a flip I don't know if they've upgraded electrical. Now when I say electrical I mean did they upgrade the panel today rewire the house most of the time they don't rewire the house, they'll probably just upgrade the panel because chances are you've had you know the correct wiring anyway so you don't have to worry about really upgrading but in the event that had like a cloth covered wiring and older wire or maybe an aluminum wiring, they might have upgraded it so those are things I'm looking for. Okay, and that's a big that's a big item right there yeah, you know, electrical, it's going to be safe you know for your family, you know, you and your family so and then another thing I have to look at for on your property is is you have multiple roof layers. Mm hmm. Okay, so flippers are known for that they behave let's just go over the old roof with another layer and I've seen up to five layers

Ray Rodriguez: 22:26

I was thinking like double layering like that's ridiculous and you said five

John Laforme: 22:30

I actually have seen five layers on a house and I'm like the attic going okay where's which rafter is going to fall down first. That's a lot of weight man five layers house wasn't designed to carry that kind of weight on that framing. Yeah. So those are those are two of the things I'm looking for. Then heating and cooling is typically never done right in a flip what I mean by that is they'll put a new air conditioner in the put a new furnace in to put some new duct hopefully. But he put new duct

Ray Rodriguez: 22:58

that furnace when your video the one from the video where they had that my video? Yeah, where they had that filter in between the unit you had to take off those PVC pipes to get to it. Yeah. Oh, you saw that? Yeah. And you pulled it out. And it was it was completely block is nobody knew it was there. But you wouldn't know because those things are there. Right? Right. Wow. So look at that on mine, please. Yes. That was bad. Yeah, you

John Laforme: 23:22

only need one filter. If you have one returned, you don't need to so that somebody put that filter in there right by the furnace. And I'm going to put a link to that YouTube video that we're talking about. So everybody can see that. Yeah, that's pretty cool. That was a good point. But yeah, that that was there because no one knew it was there or whoever put it in forgot it was there and they added another one in the living area. So I was like, Okay, well

Ray Rodriguez: 23:44

that have caused damage to the furnace upstairs. And it's

John Laforme: 23:47

gonna make the furnace. It's gonna make the furnace work overtime. It's it's like you trying to breathe through a straw all day? Yep, my point. Yeah. So when that system is running, it's pulling in air from the return. So if there's hot air in the house, and you turn on your heat, AC, it's going to suck out that hot air and push in cold air. See these registers up here, that's that's putting in the cold air. But in my hallway ceiling, there's a registered return that sucks that hot air out. Okay, so that's how that system works. It kind of goes like this. It's pulling in and pushing out. It's pulling in and pushing out. So if you put too much, if that thing's trying to breeze, that's how I describe it. It's trying to breathe, it's pulling in air. If you are cutting off its airflow. It's like me cutting off your airflow and a choke, like you're trying to breathe and it gets harder, right? So what your body works overtime to try to get out of it, you panic or whatever. So the system just gets stressed. And then that's the that can do damage to your system. And if the filter gets so filthy, that it can't capture anything anymore. It's going to try to go around the filter. You're breathing everything in now know that it's going to get into your system. Oh, okay, so So that's a good point you just brought up a lot of people think filters are for the air quality, it's not for air quality in your house. Okay? The filters to protect your system. Ah, okay, that's it. Interesting. Now if you go to Home Depot and look at their 9000 options of filters and you go smacking yourself in their head, which one do I buy, you can spend five bucks, 10 bucks, 30 bucks, maybe more, because they're going to try to sell you a Hypo allogenic. Or it's to me, it's all just, it's all marketing it basically, to me, it's all marketing. Wow. If you ask any H fat guy, they're gonna tell you look, you gotta be really careful what filter you put in, especially if you have an old system compared to a new system. So if you get a brand new top and align, super efficient system, you can probably get away with one of those allogenic filters, okay? Because it's top of the line. It's, it's, it's got plenty of power, size properly. But if you try to take that expensive, thick, thick filter, and stick it on some old antique, you're probably going to kill that thing and overwork it. It's just going to overwork it just can't handle it. So my recommendation to all my customers is change your filters more often just by cheaper ones. How often do you recommend changing it to every two to three months, really, depending on where your returns located? If your return is in the ceiling and you have pets, at least every two months, if your return is by the floor, and you have pets, their hairs getting sucked in there every time you turn it on.

Ray Rodriguez: 26:35

Okay, I gotta look at look forward tomorrow than that. Why? No? Yeah,

John Laforme: 26:38

I'm pretty sure yours is going to be in the ceiling. I'm pretty confident of that. But I'll let you know tomorrow. I'll point that out to you. But yeah, I'm glad I'm being helpful because that was a good question. That's a lot of people just they missed, they just misunderstand what the filters for the filters to protect your system, not your breathing.

Ray Rodriguez: 26:57

Excellent. That's it, the more you know, the more

John Laforme: 26:59

you know. Yep. I'm in the business of seeing is believing. Let's see what else I wanted to cover. So with okay, that's H back. Like I said, a lot of times there's just deficiencies in the H fac. Like they they put these new systems in, they don't replace all the ducting. A lot of times they don't. And sometimes the ducting could be asbestos. You're in the 66 era. So this chances are there was asbestos. Hopefully they removed it.

Ray Rodriguez: 27:31

That was on your video, too. Yep. You kicked a little thing on the ground. It was all shaking. It was a it was lying with some kind of asbestos liner.

John Laforme: 27:39

Yeah, it's a wrap wrap.

Ray Rodriguez: 27:40

There was that's what it was. Yeah, so that's

John Laforme: 27:42

so yeah, that's something that's typically found. And you should post

Ray Rodriguez: 27:47

that too on the podcast. That link? Oh, absolutely.

John Laforme: 27:51

Yeah, with everything we're covering, I'll go back and I'll put links and stuff. And then another thing I find a lot in the attics at the attic is where most of the problems are on a flip to be honest with you. Typically up in the attic, like you witnessed in that video. plumbing vent pipe stopping in the attic. It's like, hello, you have all this room

Ray Rodriguez: 28:12

up here and one was like barely even clearing the bottom of the

John Laforme: 28:14

floor hard to see I almost didn't see that one. You know, so it's crazy. And then if they put a bunch of blown insulation in there, they're covering everything up and I can't tell what's under there. And that's that's just an unknown. You know, no one's can tell you unless you pull out all that blown insulation. So hopefully you're not full blown insulation, which means I can get all the way through your

Ray Rodriguez: 28:33

attic blown insulation, is that the loose stuff Okay, grab it with your hand and throw it so I've never seen that one seemed a little the little bats the patent like you know the rolls. Yeah, the bats as a call bats. That's a fiberglass bat ever seen that

John Laforme: 28:44

will so it's a hit or miss and what we'll find tomorrow, okay, but I'm going to be looking to see if you know, if they did remove the old duct which is likely wrapped with asbestos, for the for the for the insulation, integrity of the of the duct. I want to see if they removed at all okay, a lot of times I find the sections of it, they just left it there, they took they disconnected it and threw it in the corner of the attic. And it's just a mess. You know, you just need to beg to have somebody come in and back that up and get it out of your house because yeah, for sure it's loose and brittle and fallen apart and gets in the air. And that's what you breathe in and that's what that's what can be you know, well health hazards. Don't need that. No, we don't want that for sure. So on a flipped house that's what I'm always looking for my number one thing H fg today. Let's talk about what I found today with the H fac interesting stuff. Yeah. AC outs AC unit outside was new. I was like okay, check the electrical looks good. Connections. We're good. We're up in the attic. And I'm seeing the duck just everywhere just laying on the ground laying on the attic floor then try to hang it or anything. I prefer to see it hung up in the So it's, you know, going up and then down to where it needs to be. So it's got a good flow. It's just a tournament like this on the floor. Yeah. I mean, they just threw it in. That's what it typically find with a flipped house. That's just, let's just throw it in, fire it up and leave. That's not daughter, you know, I's and cross our T's with it. So I get in the attic, and I start walking around crawling around doing my thing. And looking at the furnace. I had the AC running when I was up there. When the check for leaks. Sure enough, the furnace is here, equals here with a connect together. Big open gap right here was blowing air wasted energy right into the attic. But it felt nice out there. Yeah, I put my face right on it. I've actually done that videos. Like, you know, this thing's leaking, but it feels really good. So that's what we're looking for. Okay, you know, is this thing airtight? Is it? Is it set up correctly? Is it? Is it? Is it serviceable? You know, is it perfect? Probably not. Hopefully it's serviceable, where everything's connected, right? It's working. It's got a decent temperature on it. That's it? You know, we're done. You know,

Ray Rodriguez: 31:11

we got a question about that. Yeah. What is your recommendation for like a homeowner to go up and actually inspect their H back? Like, just go and look at make sure there's no holes or like a rat chewed on something?

John Laforme: 31:23

Well, yeah. In general, you should have I recommend anybody that owns a home, have their system serviced at least once a year. Okay, have an h and assert a licensed HVAC contractor come in and inspect it. Go through the system? Make sure everything's good. You know, depends on who you call. There's a lot of there's a lot of bad contractors out there. There's a lot of good contractors, I

Ray Rodriguez: 31:48

say something that you don't need.

John Laforme: 31:50

Yeah, that's

Ray Rodriguez: 31:51

that's all I'd be afraid of. Honestly, I'd Yeah, or something like that. Like, yeah, haven't come out and check it. But oh, you know what, this is actually looking like it needs to be replaced. And it really doesn't. Yeah, yeah. You know, so like, maybe if, on him It takes take an H back class and learn how to inspect something.

John Laforme: 32:06

It's just some basics. You know, you know, there's just some basic as a homeowner, if you've been changing your filter, and every time you turn this thing on it, it works. Chances are it's in good shape. Maybe we should do a video on it. On what

Ray Rodriguez: 32:17

on a quick homeowners age back inspection. Okay, safely.

John Laforme: 32:25

Yeah, maybe I could put something like that together. Cool. So, so yeah, I mean, definitely recommend once you once you move in hope, I mean, tomorrow. Hopefully, I don't have to tell you anything bad about it. I'm hoping to. I'm sure I'm going to mention something about it. As long as it's a new system. It's half the

Ray Rodriguez: 32:42

battle. Let me know, John, let me know what you find the ugly. Yeah, the expensive

John Laforme: 32:45

stuff is already in your house. If you have a new system, that's great. Even if it's not perfect. You can have someone else come in and re tweak it. Yeah, sure. But all the expensive parts are there. So that's what we're hoping for that you have a new one because trust me, I've been in flips where I'm on the roof. And I see a 20 year old AC unit. And a brand new furnace inside the attic. Oh, by the way, it don't forget it had the chrome wheels. It had the nest. Oh, yeah, the Nest thermostat. Oh my god, is it so you walk through your house has an s it has a nest? So you think as a homeowner? It's not gonna hang out? Yeah. As as a let me ask you this question. You've been home someone looking to buy a home? If you saw a nest? Does that does that compute to you as a new system? Would you think oh, I must have a new H vac system or not?

Ray Rodriguez: 33:31

No, it means they, they probably had an old one. They spent 250 to go buy something. Okay. I don't Yeah, I don't think so. Yeah, because like when I walked through the house, like I have, like, I know that on the other side of that wall, or upstairs is doesn't look good up there. I just like my wife would go over here. And I would just like walk off myself, I'd go and look at the foundation. Like look like a very novice, you know, like, look for cracks and look for like, you know, stuff like that. So like, I would think that someone just been to 15 just put that up there. Because they don't like the old school.

John Laforme: 34:04

Let me tell you when there's a time to worry. So let's say let's say you're 585758 Let's say your wife's five, five or something, whatever. And you're on one end of the kitchen, she's in the other and all of a suddenly she looks taller than you. That's a problem. Yeah, that means your your floor might be tilted like this. So those are things that you notice as soon as you walk into I don't care who you are, if you if there's the floors going up hill or all of a suddenly you go from the dining room to the kitchen and it's going downhill. That's bad. It's not horrible. But it just means the house has settled. It's it's to be expected. But how severe it is. That's that's what we're going to take a look at. Hopefully you don't have them and your type of foundation 66 on a race Foundation. We may not have any issues like that. Okay, so but that's, that's some st so when people looking at houses at If you see a bunch of stress cracks everywhere on the walls and ceilings and like why is there a crack there was there was a whole shitload of cracks over there. You know? That's, that's that should give you caution not make your run away. Just you got to look into it further.

Ray Rodriguez: 35:14

I saw yesterday the house and went to on the outside like stucco.

John Laforme: 35:18

Stucco cracks. Yeah, that's very common. But some stucco cracks are just I've seen five year old houses with smooth coat stucco, riddled with spider cracks. Well on every single part of it was on the corner. Somebody might have whacked, but it was like a stucco is just your siding. It's pretty thick. And it's pretty adorable. If you run into it with a car you will break

Ray Rodriguez: 35:44

it. Okay, note to self. Alright.

John Laforme: 35:47

You'll scratch your car like tail too. So yeah, so as far as the other systems like the roof like I mentioned, it could be multiple layers. Want to make sure there's no open holes in the roofs. That's something I commonly find on flipped houses. I want to

Ray Rodriguez: 36:03

do skylights.

John Laforme: 36:05

Yeah, lights.

Ray Rodriguez: 36:07

It doesn't have skylights. No, no, but you did like a little part in the video. Like you talked about a skylight with I forgot who Yeah, they just lift them off. Yeah. And you're like you're talking to the people on the inside.

John Laforme: 36:17

I was like, Hey, can somebody pass me the sugar? Yeah, looking up? What the hell you why why is he talking to us to the roof?

Ray Rodriguez: 36:23

I don't think the skylights in this in this place. Okay, let me know if

John Laforme: 36:26

it made me pull it off, maybe not be one. And so like I said, the bigger problems, I typically find her in the attics underneath the house, too. Now, let's talk about the plumbing, because you mentioned plumbing earlier. So 1966. If they did not upgrade the drain pipe, it's going to be a cast iron material, which means it's most likely the same age as the house. It doesn't mean it has to go. But it's just it's past its life expectancy. So what happens with the cast iron, it's typically the bigger sections of four inch that it'd be like three inch, two inch sections. And they all meet into the one. So if you picture a bathroom here, laundry here, kitchen here, another bathroom, another bathroom. And here's the main line that goes out to the street. So all these plumbing, oh, they all connect to the main line. Okay, that goes out to the street. So you want to know what's under the house. That's all visible by going under the house, which I'll do. And then I'm also doing the sewer inspection for you. And that's going to check this line that's underground, where all these connect to. And that goes out to the street. So we want you can't see that. Unless you put a camera in.

Ray Rodriguez: 37:36

And that goes That's the city right there in charge of that or not.

John Laforme: 37:39

This is yours. Oh, really? You're in charge all the way up to the main and the city? How far does that go? an outlet depends. It depends on where you're where your line is located. Question.

Ray Rodriguez: 37:49

So say it does go out to the street. And something happens in the future to where that line needs to be replaced. Who's responsible for that?

John Laforme: 37:55

You're responsible for everything from your house all the way up to the city saddle. So here's the city. Okay, here's your house and your line comes here. From here backwards. Okay, gotcha. Cool. You're in charge of all that. So it's a really good idea. For anybody buying a flipped house or any house period to get a sewer inspection done. It's only a couple $100 to get that peace of mind and know what it's made of and what the condition is. There's two things this that's the two reasons why you want a sewer inspection. You want to know what kind of material is underground? And you want to know the condition of it. It's that simple. Is it? Is it going to allow anything to flow don't forget the house you're looking at tomorrow has been vacant for a while no one lives there. My my right. No one live in there.

Ray Rodriguez: 38:37

Yes, no one lives there now. So how long they think they bought it? 2018

John Laforme: 38:42

So they've Okay, so they've been working on it flipping or whatever. So it's right now it's not currently being all the systems and Not being used under normal living conditions. So it's not people flushing toilet paper every day. So that's why I really want to get a good look at that thing and see is it smooth, is the pipe smooth. If it's cast iron is one thing but is it has the condition on the inside. Gotcha. Sometimes cast iron on the bottom starts getting flat. And a drain pipe is meant to be around smooth surface.

Ray Rodriguez: 39:11

We use the same thing in the Army. I was a tank commander in the army. So I had a tank with a 120 millimeter smoothbore cannon right. And so like every six months, they'd put a borescope down they had that little eyepiece they put the borescope down they they go around the rifle not the right thing but the bore the barrel yeah to see if there's any kind of stress fractures and if there was the gun was out of battery and how to change it.

John Laforme: 39:35

Yeah, smart. You don't want that thing blowed backfire and you're doing

Ray Rodriguez: 39:38

like a different kind of borescope. So yeah, scope.

John Laforme: 39:41

Yeah. Some people refer to it as a what's it called? Was that when they put that camera up you but oh,

Ray Rodriguez: 39:49

I've been there yet.

John Laforme: 39:50

colonoscopy.

Ray Rodriguez: 39:51

I'm done. Next year,

John Laforme: 39:53

I did it when I was 50 and it's the best high you'll ever have. You're gonna get up Aren't you? Oh? They're gonna put you out. You're gonna wake up and you got to be so calm. You can be like, just because of the drug that you're on. You're coming out of it. My wife was like, What the hell? I've never seen you so calm.

Ray Rodriguez: 40:13

ordered me one. How do we go from sewer pipes? barrels? Yeah, colonoscopies.

John Laforme: 40:20

This episode has it all everybody. Okay, okay, so. So back to the plumbing. So plumbing. Speaking of plumbing, yeah, so we're gonna we're looking at your, like I said, I'm gonna get under the house and look at the visible pipe that I can actually see coming out of your bathrooms, kitchen, laundry area and all that stuff. See the condition? And if they did upgrade it, I'm going to check the work. I'm going to see hey, they stole it correctly. Do they have big pipes going into small pipes or small pipes going into big pipes? You know, there's, there's a way to do it. Is it strapped properly? Is that a? Are they using the right hangers? Is it pitched properly? drain pipe can't be you level needs to be quarter inch per foot needs to be you know, there's there's, there's guidelines for everything that gets installed on the house, you know. So now let's talk about the water supply. You got any more questions on the drain pipe? Or? No? I did not see it. So hopefully I'm gonna see ABS plastic. That's today's standard stereo for drain pipe. So if they upgraded everything, which I'm hoping they did. Yeah, it's just a matter of did they put it in right in that point? So

Ray Rodriguez: 41:28

I'm interested to see what you find on that. I wonder if they upgraded?

John Laforme: 41:32

We're gonna find out man find out soon, we're going to find out like within less than 24 hours. Yep. And now let's talk about water supply pipe. Okay, water supply pipe is a whole different thing. That's pressurized pipe. So that that's for your faucets, showers, laundry area, kitchen, all that stuff. So it could be any one of many different types of materials. So if Well, I really hope I don't find galvanized pipe in there. But it could happen to some people on flips, they take shortcuts, they don't remove all of the cast, all of the galvanized steel, galvanized steel corrodes from the inside. So the pipe may start off being that big and then by the time it's this age, it's only that much water being flowing through it well, so that's not a good thing to have. So hopefully we don't find that hopefully they upgraded it to either a PECS or copper. Okay, and if they did use a PECS, hopefully it's pecs a that's the better pecs. pecs, B is the cheaper way of doing it. Just like copper pipe you have type L type M type L is the better because it's a thicker material. And a type M is a thinner material. Now, along with that installation is another important part. Great. They upgraded your plumbing. But did they put it in correctly? Did they use the correct fasteners? So is it mounted underneath the house properly with the right fasteners, sometimes they use these what's called plumber's tape, which is a metal tape. You can have metal in contact with copper causes electrolysis. It causes the pipe to deteriorate in it's like a cancer for the pipe. Well, so over time that electrolysis will change the color of that pipe and will just spread just like cancer spreads through someone's body. Really? Yeah. So those are things I'm looking for. And my last podcast guest was a plumber and we went through that. Cool. Watch it. I didn't I didn't do the video. I didn't release the video that Oh, but the audio podcast is up on the podcast. I'll listen. Yeah, check it out. Listen to it. It'll make a lot of sense.

Ray Rodriguez: 43:37

I've never I never knew something like that would happen to pipes. But next. Yeah,

John Laforme: 43:40

yeah, I see it quite a bit on all kinds of construction homes, whether they're older or newer. It's people just get lazy. And they just use whatever hangers available. And they use the old original hangers, like come on really, all that money can't strap stuff. So anyway, those are the things I'm looking forward to make sure it's done correctly. Because let's get back to the beefy part of every the beefy part of what what to be when I say what to be concerned about. But what to really understand about a flipped house. And most cases have flipped house, there's no permits. So when there's no permits, that doesn't mean incredibly bad automatically. What it means is there's been no oversight of the work that was done. So in other words, great. They upgraded your 100 amp panel to a 200 amp panel. Awesome. I want to tell you that but if I open it up and it looks like Mickey Mouse installed it well that's nice. You gotta get electrician out there to go through the whole thing. Say you know what, we got the box here. We got the panel here. We're missing this, this and this. We got to do this. We're gonna rewire a little bit in a box. So that's the downside of a flipped house most of the time the major systems have not been permitted. And the major systems are electrical, plumbing, heating and cooling, foundation and roofing. Those are the most expensive things typically in a house. Okay. So if there's been upgrades, which I'm sure we're going to see, then that's, you know, that's the downside to it. So hopefully there is permits. Have you had that discussion with anybody?

Ray Rodriguez: 45:22

Yeah, we we will. We had our first experience with this two weeks ago, on a house that we really liked. on Zillow, I think it was listed at like, what, 70 100 feet, some like that. But in the books, it was, like 800 feet. So they did a bunch of work on it. But I'll permits without permits, right. So it was listed it was on the books is 800 feet square feet. So all that extra footage on Zillow was on permitted. So that's the kind of risk. I don't want to take the type of risk? I don't know.

John Laforme: 45:56

Well, it sounds like they screwed themselves. Yeah. I mean, who would want to buy a house with Okay, so that's the whole point of adding square footage to a house is to increase your value and to have a bigger living space. So why would you not permit it? Because I was not permitted, it doesn't get counted. So now, when you go to sell your house, you can't take advantage of all that work? You just did. You have to list it at the original size, it was so won't get appraised right? Not sure how that would play out? You know,

Ray Rodriguez: 46:27

like, if it's if it's okay, you can say it's 1600. But here on the paper. So where this extra 800 feet come from? Like we're not going to appraise his house for the value? I don't know that

John Laforme: 46:36

just Yeah, it's it's a can of worms. I'm not there with the appraiser. So I don't know, I can't I can't truthfully answer that correctly. So I'm not going to assume a try. But I wouldn't do it too much. Yeah, I don't think but anyway, it just doesn't make sense to add square footage onto your house, which means you're increasing your square footage, without getting the benefit of it. Why don't people get permits, because it raises the price. Because to me, now, there's more people by the city's involved. They gotta come by and look at what you're doing. What's wrong with that? What's wrong with oversight? I have no problem with oversight. It'll pay off in the end, as a homeowner, you're not supposed to know exactly when electrician is supposed to do, which components he has to add to that new panel? How are you going to know? That's why you want to have a permit. That way, someone else who does know is going to come by and oversee what that guy's doing? And then sign off. So then if they sign off, and there's a problem? Well, you have a little recourse? Why did you sign off on this? It's not right. Would you drive by drive by inspection? Yeah, you know, so that's how I look at it. So that's the that's the biggest negative, I think with flipped home. But I think I don't think people should be afraid of buying flipped homes at all. It's usually, to sum it up, the simplest way is you got a lot of pretty new walls, new countertops, shiny appliances, and you probably have major systems upgraded or at least half of them upgraded. But they've been kind of sloppily thrown together. So you may have the most expensive parts already there. So it's just a matter of bringing in a qualified person to fine tune them and get them to where they need to be. Which probably isn't going to be that much because you already have the expensive parts there. But if you go into a house, that's only pretty and all the major systems I mentioned are antiques. Well then if you can't get a credit back, you're going to be dishing out some more money pretty quick. Okay, you know, like new H vac system is installed by a pro on that the size house would go into like probably 15 grand 15 grand maybe maybe 20

Ray Rodriguez: 48:50

What's good like York or train or something like that. That's the only two brands that I know yeah,

John Laforme: 48:54

there's York this train. There's carrier. There's Linux a lot of good there's a lot of good ones out you just want don't want you don't want to buy the ones that don't have brands on it. Yeah, for sure. Put label here for brand. Oh, yeah. Brand goes here. Yeah, like white label. Yeah. So now do you have any like serious stress about tomorrow? Like are you worried about something screwing things up? Is there anything on your mind like that?

Ray Rodriguez: 49:25

No, I hired a bunch of professionals to do the job and I appreciate they will not man like I'm not I'm not nervous. I'm actually interested to see what you find. Like I'm really like looking forward to the results you know to see like what you find it and hopefully that can help us out. You know, I'm sure it will to closing

John Laforme: 49:45

Yeah, you're gonna you're gonna know things tomorrow. I guarantee you'll know things tomorrow that you didn't know I guarantee your relative is going to know things tomorrow. He didn't know Yeah, marriage you the listing agent is going to know things tomorrow. They didn't know.

Ray Rodriguez: 49:57

But everyone that's in place tomorrow. They're very good at what they do. Yeah, our agent is amazing. Good. This guy's awesome. You're great at what you do. And I know that if you referred somebody to to help me with the service that they're proficient in there see

John Laforme: 50:12

I only work with good guys. Yeah, I

Ray Rodriguez: 50:14

know. I don't work with slouches. My wife was kind of kind of worried. Like, I don't know your friend. I was like, hold on a second. I went got a video. I was like, oh, yeah, he's good. See? Ya trust him? Well, that's gonna take care of you. Yeah. So you guys are good. I'm not worried. I'm just very interested to see what you guys find. Yeah, yeah. So.

John Laforme: 50:35

So I think we should just leave it here. Unless there's something else you want to say. Because we're going to have part two to this Oh, which is going to be you coming back after the inspection is over. We'll give it you know, we'll let you get the report. I'm excited. I'm gonna inspect it tomorrow, I have the report for you the following day. Let you go through it. We'll give it a few days. And when you've absorbed everything, and you've asked me enough questions, then we'll have you come back. And then we'll compare how you were feeling before you went into it. And then how you feeling after it? Yeah, I think that'd be a great episode to just do a part two of this. Yeah. I'm excited that he will find so now. What's your rank?

Ray Rodriguez: 51:14

Now? And what? jujitsu or the army? The army? Oh, retired. Sorry. First class.

John Laforme: 51:20

How do you get retired? So Young?

Ray Rodriguez: 51:22

I got medically retired. Oh, my back.

John Laforme: 51:25

Okay. You're back. Okay. Got it. As soon as you said, I'm like, wait a second. I'm not retired yet. He's a lot younger than

Ray Rodriguez: 51:32

me retiring. 20 years from the army. Yeah. Or from any branch of service. Right? Yeah. You can retire in 20 years, but you can do longer if you want, but I don't. I

John Laforme: 51:40

had an uncle that was in the Air Force. He was a lifer. He was there for his whole life. His job was I don't he lived in Virginia. So it wasn't that contact with him that much. But he was in it for a long time. My mom's brother. Cool. Yeah.

Ray Rodriguez: 51:54

Do you know he flew or anything or he just support I

John Laforme: 51:57

don't know. It was he died a long time ago. I was I was a lot younger. So I did like him. I used to visit him once. But I was really young. But I remember him being a lifer. My brother was my brother right here. This picture right there. He passed away a few years ago, but he was in the Air Force. I hear that before yours. Thanks. Thanks. My brother. My brother Lou is in the Coast Guard.

Ray Rodriguez: 52:18

Cool. I've only met one person, the Coast Guard and in my whole career in the army, and it was on a Dodgers game. I shit Yeah, cuz we're doing the flag for the ceremony. Okay, and it was like I was like, what a what uniform? Is that? Yes. Like that's Coast Guard. Like what? Let's go talk to this guy. Yeah, like, like unicorns. You never see him? Yeah, I've never seen him. Yeah, I've always been on land. But still, I've never seen a Coast Guard guy. Yeah. Gave him a hug.

John Laforme: 52:40

Did you actually see battle and stuff like that?

Ray Rodriguez: 52:42

I didn't make it over to over there. But I was stationed in South Korea and draw Okay, so a bunch of cool

John Laforme: 52:49

stuff. That's great that you get to you know, see the rest of the world. Oh,

Ray Rodriguez: 52:53

yeah. I've been to 24 different countries. Oh, yeah.

John Laforme: 52:57

You got me beat. I've only got like five or six. Yeah, I don't have any.

Ray Rodriguez: 53:01

I have six. Awesome. Yeah,

John Laforme: 53:02

I don't have a lot. I don't have that many.

Ray Rodriguez: 53:04

I do miss it though. I miss my boys. And yeah, everybody that I have is pleasure to meet. You guys have get togethers and stuff. Sometimes we do sometimes we do or like, since I live in LA when my friends go to Fort Irwin, I'll drive the scenery or stuff like that and or just meet up in LA if they're in town.

John Laforme: 53:23

Yeah, people have asked me in the past. Have you ever been on the service? And I'm like, No, I haven't like well, how come you didn't go when you brothers went in? He was like, you know, I thought about that. And I'm with I'm thinking back on. You know, my brothers did not come home ranting and raving about it. It is fun, though. I had a great time. Yeah, no, my brother was a jet plane mechanic. I was cool. Yeah. So you can make some good money. But he couldn't get a job doing it when you get out. Really? Yeah, he had a really hard time like trying to land a job when he get out of there.

Ray Rodriguez: 53:50

I'm pretty sure he had his like his all his a&p license. He was top

John Laforme: 53:53

of his class to wow, if I remember that's how he wound up in California. Yeah, there's a lot of stuff here. He wound up coming out here and then could not get a job with doing what he wanted. So he will landed a job as a forklift mechanic. Okay. And he took that to the top and yeah, and then that's how I got one up out here because he invited me to come live out here.

Ray Rodriguez: 54:13

There's a lot of like, all that stuff out here for the military. You know, the Marines down south and yep, armies out there and Barstow area stuff. So there's a lot of stuff here.

John Laforme: 54:26

There's a few other guys in your class that are military as well.

Ray Rodriguez: 54:30

Who is Antonio? He's in the military now,

John Laforme: 54:33

Tonio not sure who told me he's kind of new. He's like two years in. Yeah, I don't know him. There's another guy. I'm not gonna blank on his name right now cuz I haven't seen him so long. I'll think of it as soon as you leave. Yeah, right. Oh, yeah. I'll send you text. Anyway, he's cool. He's really cool. But yeah, so yeah, thank you for your service.

Ray Rodriguez: 54:53

For sure. Thank you. Yeah, sure. Question too. I mean, quit. Yeah. Quick something to the veterans out there who don't be afraid to use your VA loan. Yeah. Good. The way you just get started as you just get your certificate of eligibility from I forgot the website, the website, I'll put in the comments of this video. But yeah, just get that certificate of eligibility and contact a, you know, find a veteran friendly lender, I use Veterans United. My guy CJ over there, he took care of me like really, really? Well. The service has been really good. I'm really happy with that, you know, even my transition out of the army was pretty smooth. But uh, yeah, Veterans, please utilize that VA loan, you work for it. It's no down payment. If you're over 10% I think disability there's no funding fee. So just utilize it sir. For us. It's there for you don't you know, if you have any questions about it's come in the in the comments, since that's a good message to help you out as best as I can.

John Laforme: 55:54

So if you if you want to send me over those details, I'll put them on the I'll put them in the description section. Cool. Yeah. So anybody listening can can just go to the podcast description, description section below. And you'll see all the links stuff to get the links to what you're talking about or specific people if they're okay with being Amen. To check first. When people don't want to have their name and number on on the web. Let me know what you want to put up and I'll add it before I upload the episode. So yeah, let's leave it here. I think we're gonna get together probably within a week. Sounds good. We're gonna we're gonna see you on the other side of this. And that's it. Thanks, dude. Hey, man, anytime All right.